Radiation 101

A short lesson in how radiation enters the human body, compliments of the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. These images are from a booklet on nuclear testing on Bikini Atoll, for the benefit of Bikini Atoll-ers who wondered what happened to their home and their health, I presume. I took photographs of the page images in the reading room at the museum.

What does this have to do with iodine, you may ask... it's simple. Radioactive iodine from nuclear testing binds to receptor sites in the human body, receptor sites that are meant for plain ole good-for-you, necessary for life, IODINE. The radioactive iodine destroys surrounding tissue and damages DNA. Damaged DNA is a cause of cancer. Thyroid cancers have been on the rise for the last 40 years... 

more info here:

http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/nuclear_testing_and_the_rise_of_thyroid_cancers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2002/aug/06/travelnews.nuclearindustry.environment

http://drdavidbrownstein.blogspot.com/2011/03/japan-radiation-update-4.html

Radiation surrounds us...

"Radiation has been a part of the world since the beginning, and it surrounds us and is inside our bodies"

radiation is invisible...

"We can't see it, we can't hear it, we can't taste it, we can't smell it, we can't feel it"

radioactive fallout

"The tiny particle and radioactive atoms from the atomic bombs fell on Bikini Atoll and also on places far away around the world."

~ "Tiny particles of soil and radioactive atoms from the bomb mix together"

~"hole made by an atomic bomb"

~"The tiny particles and atoms that are radioactive rise upwards."

~"The tiny particles and atoms that are radioactive again fall down toward earth- some on the atoll and some on places far away."

~"Over a period of many years, the tiny particles and atoms that are radioactive go down into the soil."

~"Some radioactive atoms in the soil enter food."

~"If people eat food that contains radioactive atoms and breathe dust that contains radioactive atoms, the radioactive atoms enter their bodies."

"Ways radiation could enter people's bodies."

~"if we breathe air containing radioactive atoms."

~"If radiation from soil passes through our bodies, some of the energy remains inside our bodies."

"Radioactive atoms go from the soil to the roots of the coconut tree, to the mature coconut, to the crab, to people."

"How radioactive atoms in food and in air enter people's bodies and go to each part of the body and remain in the body, or leave it."